posted at 4:41 pm on March 17, 2010 by Allahpundit

I’m skeptical, but commenters in the Pelosi thread are buzzing so let’s have at it.

health care issue is still up in the air…..the Congressional budget office score has come in at over 1 trillion $..yes …..1 trillion……if the bill is not posted by 6 pm today< we cant vote on it saturday...stay tuned

Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard is hearing the same thing. So why am I skeptical? Well, (a) by law, the reconciliation fix has to reduce the deficit above and beyond the reduction already provided for in Reid’s Senate bill — which cost less than a trillion. It’s technically possible for a more expensive bill to produce greater long-term savings, but I’m keen to see how they played with the, ahem, revenue-raising provisions to do it. And (b) even if they can make the numbers work for reconciliation, The One has said all along that he wants a bill that costs in the neighborhood of $900 billion. No surprise that he’d be willing to break yet another promise to pass this clusterfark, but it’s not his credibility that’s on the line right now; it’s the credibility of Democratic fencesitters, who need some sort of fig leaf on costs that they can take back to their districts. As moronic as it may sound, a $950 billion bill is easier to sell than a $1 trillion one (that’s why gadgets are priced at $99.99 instead of $100), to the point where I would have considered it a mortal lock that the leadership would game the numbers so that they come in at $900-and-change. According to the GOP whip count, it’s 204 yes, 209 no, with 18 left to decide things. Is Pelosi really going to hang a pricetag with 12 zeroes around their necks before they vote?

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is headed into a meeting with President Obama this afternoon after the White House and Congressional leaders have begun to discuss a higher-than-expected excise tax on some health care plans, in order to maintain their claim that health care legislation will reduce the deficit, a source involved in health care talks said.

Any unexpected change to the health care plan could endanger support for the bill from labor, which agreed to back it after reductions to the planned excise tax.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Comments

AP I know this will come as a shock to you since you are such a defender of BO, but he lies. So does Nancy. They don’t care how much it costs. They don’t care if there is language in that bill that the first born child of every American is to be tortured and then killed. They just want the damned thing passed.

BTW, I believe we can scratch Saturday for the vote (unless, of course, SanFranNan ignores the 72-hour pledge) – I have 6:30 pm here in Wisconsin, and still no indication that either the CBO has scored this or the Rules Committee has cobbled together the actual Wreckconciliation bill.

I have plenty of experience with Medicaids who know how to bleed the system even to the point of calling 911 for an ambulance when they need a ride! or asking for a script for tylenol so they do not have to pay for it.

Regardless of whether the House votes to pass the senate bill, or deems that it passed for a Rec vote, the Senate bill will have been passed, and will be sent to the president’s desk. Given how nasty things have already been for the dems, and how ugly a reconciliation fight is likely to be, I don’t think they’ll think it’s worth the trouble.